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An energy company kept an angry dad waiting for weeks as they hung on to £50 of his money lost when he had to have a meter replaced.

Roy Grant, 47, says Spark Energy made it 'as difficult as possible' for him to reclaim the money that was wiped out when a broken meter was swapped over.

Problems began in October when Rory found he had no hot water and tried to top up his metre with £50 - only to find there was a fault and the meter had to be be replaced.

(Image: Rory Grant)

The man who fixed the meter told him it would be easy to get the money back from his provider – but it took weeks of emailing the firm before Rory claims that he received a compensation letter out of the blue.

But annoyingly, the voucher that he was sent was for just £30, meaning he was still £20 out of pocket, reports plymouthherald .

(Image: Rory Grant)

Rory tried to get hold of the last of his money but claims that the firm backtracked and said that it can't send out vouchers, so he needed to top up to get his cash.

He said: “They told me to go to my local pay point and top up with £1 and then it would credit me £50.

“But I did it three times and it still hadn’t worked.”

(Image: Rory Grant)

Rory, who lives in Milehouse with his wife Lesley and their two daughters, has been renting in Plymouth since August.

The family moved to the city from London so that their teenage daughter could join Plymouth’s prestigious swimming team.

(Image: Rory Grant)

Rory, who recently launched his own business, said that he is angry about the way the energy firm has treated its customers.

He said he believes many people would have given up on getting their money back, leaving the company to keep what they are owed.

He said: “It sickens me that they are preying on people by making the whole process as difficult as possible.

“Most people don’t have the means to keep chasing them and they would have just given up.

“I’ve wasted loads of time on this but I just want the money. I feel it is an injustice.

"They are exploiting customers.”

(Image: Rory Grant)

Spark Energy has now issued an apology along with compensation. A spokesman for the energy firm said: “We’ve been in touch with Mr Grant to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

"Mr Grant’s refund has been paid and we’ve provided an additional £50 credit as a gesture of goodwill."

He added: "Ultimately it was a small glitch in the industry system used to provide these credits to gas Prepayment Meters which caused the delay.

(Image: Rory Grant)

"Spark’s account manager had a friendly conversation with the customer yesterday and by all accounts he was happy with the resolution.

"Spark apologised to him and he accepted the £50 good will gesture which was paid instantly.

"The refund credit was paid via a top-up card in the same method as above. This is a widely used method within the industry for PPMs.

The firm added: "Customers who would like to discuss anything about their account are advised to get in touch with Spark and our team will resolve it as quickly as possible."